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Slaughter and Higgins Say $67 Million Contract for CUBRC is Further Proof of Good Things to Come for Medical Campus

Jan 27, 2012

Press Release

Reps. Louise Slaughter (NY-28) and Brian Higgins (NY-27) today joined with dozens of employees from CUBRC to celebrate the research institution’s largest federal contract to date. This new arrangement will help create a dozen jobs at one of the Medical Campus’ most promising companies.

Earlier this week, CUBRC was awarded a $67 million, five-year contract to develop, manufacture and evaluate antibiotics to combat biothreats and antibiotic-resistant pathogens. The funding, available through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is by far the largest contract awarded to CUBRC to date and comes on the heels of a $37 million grant announcement in October.

Slaughter and Higgins are long-time supporters of CUBRC and today praised President and CEO Tom McMahon and his employees for their life-saving work and commitment to create and keep high-paying jobs in Buffalo.

“There are few places in the country that even approach the level of research being conducted here at CUBRC and across the Medical Campus,” said Slaughter. “This multi-million dollar contract we’re celebrating today is further proof that we have the best workers in the country in Western New York and when they have the chance to compete, they are proven to be the best. This is a great day for CUBRC and the Medical Campus, one of many to come.”

"Western New York continues to set itself apart as an outlier in biomedical innovation," said Higgins. "The lifesaving work done each day by CUBRC and others creates jobs and economic growth locally and priceless breakthrough discoveries for the nation and the world."

Mr. McMahon stated, “We are truly thankful for BARDA’s confidence in our proposal to develop the next generation of treatments for bacterial infections.”

CUBRC spent 15 months applying for the federal contract being celebrated today. Coupled with the contract awarded this fall, plus another grant that came in from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) just before that one, the company has secured about $106 million in biomedical contracts, most of them advanced drug development work.